The topic of masculinity seems to have surpassed the gospel itself as the emphasis in some corners of Christianity.

Many of the podcaster theologians advocating what they refer to as “biblical masculinity” would try to revoke Jesus’ man card. Jesus turning over tables is a paradigm to be emulated. Jesus weeping must be some kind of Greek verb snafu that short circuits that paradigm.

Those within that same camp would bypass passages that don’t fit their preferred definition of manhood, not unlike Thomas Jefferson’s edited Bible. Humility, meekness, gentleness, and compassion are relegated to tertiary characteristics in today’s “Christian man,” or so they’d focus.

Much of what I see in the category of biblical masculinity is nothing more than a combination of stoicism, pompous pietism, and syncretism. Syncretism comes in merging male stereotypes with scriptural principles to create an orthopraxy after our own image. Throw in some shots from Canon Press, flamethrowers, and bloviating and you have the recipe for pseudo manhood.

Men are not two-dimensional creatures who merely reproduce and make all the decisions with cold hard logic. Why? We were created in God’s image (imago Dei) and as such have a complex interplay of emotions, intellect, drive, desire, logic, and will. Christ was like us in every respect, yet without sin. We are like Christ in His humanity, yet with sin. So, God’s word points us toward what it means to be complete. That has less to do with our man cards than it does being killed by the law in our sinfulness and resurrected through the transformation of the gospel into the very image of the God-man.

Let’s be clear: Scripture gives us specific principles on manhood and womanhood. Our uniqueness is to be celebrated and maintained in obedience and accordance with Scripture. Nonetheless, the Bible is not primarily a book about how men should behave as men. It is a revelation of God who sent His only begotten Son to redeem all of humanity. Jesus Christ was the perfect man, full of grace and truth. It seems absurd to think that our growth in Christ should be best attained by relegating Christ to second place behind our pursuit of the spirit of the age, no matter how many Bible verses we pluck out to bolster it. Indeed, our sanctification has more to do with Christ in us than with our own pursuit of strategies, regardless of how many biblical terms we pack into them.

Pursuing manhood is not the ultimate goal. We must pursue Christ. In so doing, we will become men that love well, stand firmly, grow in wisdom, and exhibit courage that comes from supernatural transformation, not watching YouTube videos of jackasses for Jesus. The central message of Scripture is the redeeming work of Christ, not a 21st century construction of being a man. Making manhood the metanarrative is myopic. Pursuing Christ overflows into the God-given, Spirit-empowered vocation we are called to fulfill as men.